Learning From The Games

The Olympic Games are a complex undertaking that will present unique challenges to each city and country that bids to host them. In order to help cities face up to these challenges, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has created a knowledge resource called Olympic Games Knowledge Management (OGKM), which allows future host cities to draw on the knowledge and experience of previous Games hosts. If used wisely, the different tools available to the Games organisers should allow them to considerably streamline their planning and approach to the Games.

Bid Phase

The transfer of knowledge process begins during the bid phase, where applicant and candidate cities are able to access the wealth of knowledge contained within the OGKM programme, attend an information seminar of several days with experts from the IOC and current Organising Committees, as well as participate in the Observers Programme during the edition of the Games that falls during the bid phase. For the cities bidding for Games in 2018, they will participate in the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games Observers Programme.

Living It

There is no substitute to actually gaining hands-on experience and seeing the reality of organising a Games. This is why the IOC has implemented a multi-level programme that allows future organisers to experience the reality of the Games in action. Future organisers are invited to participate in either the official Observers Programme of a Games, where they are guided through different operational areas of the Games by the people that are actually running them, or on the secondee programme, which sees personnel sent to work for extended periods of time with the current Organising Committee of the Games, so that they can understand the operational intricacies of the Games. In addition, the IOC organises a debriefing of each edition of the Games, where the last Organising Committee shares its experiences and knowledge with those that are still working to put on the Games.

The Knowledge

Organisers also have the option of accessing a large amount of written and visual knowledge linked to Games organisation. The OGKM extranet allows bid cities and organising committees to access thousands of documents and videos produced by previous organisers, as well as Technical Manuals produced by IOC experts in numerous areas connected to the Games. This knowledge resource is invaluable to future organisers and grows with each passing edition, allowing it to stay abreast with the evolutions of the Games.